Experiences of going to university and….surviving!

Better Value

This week I thought I would share my spaghetti bolognese! Its really quick unless you are a slow cook like me…..and, for the first time I used quorn mince! Thought I would give the vegetarian version a go, mainly because I saved £2 by just buying the veggie option! :O (a whole £2! That’s so much!!!!).

Anyway, more about all that after;

Ingredients:

– 500 g bag of frozen quorn mince

– As much spaghetti as you usually like

– 2 cartons of passata

– 1 onion

– Olive oil

– 3 carrots

– Bacon (I used 12 rashers, but it depends how much bacon you want in it)

– Garlic Ciabatta

– 200 mL beef stock

– Cheese

– 2 cloves of garlic

Step 1: Chop the garlic, carrots and the onion. Cut the bacon, I remove all of the fat of the bacon so I probably lose about a quarter of what I could put in, I also used 12 rashers because I was making this in bulk!

Step 2: After chopping the vegetables, place the frozen quorn mince into a large saucepan with some olive oil, you do not need to defrost it, you cannot really overcook it and it takes about 12 minutes from frozen to cook. Whilst this is being done, fry the bacon until cooked. Once done add the onion and fry this for a further 5 minutes until the onion is soft and brown, you can then add the carrots after on their own to soften them up slightly or, like me, you can add the quorn mince, carrot and garlic all in one go to the bacon and onion.

Step 3: After a further 5 minutes or so, *add the stock and passata to the mix and mix all together, bring to the boil and allow to simmer for as long as you would want (max 2 hours) all you are doing here is heating everything up, but I tend to let it simmer for about an hour.

*Note – before adding the stock and passata you can add some white wine and allow this to boil off before adding the stock, its not completely necessary.

Step 4: About 10 minutes or so before you have finished step 3, cook your spaghetti and your garlic ciabatta (190 °C for 12 minutes approx), and once all done serve and top with cheese if you like! With this there was also a lot of the bolognese left over, so I put that in a container for freezing, probably enough for 4 more portions, I didnt have portion sized containers so I will either be having big portions or when defrosted half will be stored in the fridge for the next day, when cooking this once defrosted you should add a small amount of beef stock (or just normal water) just to stop it all burning and cook it for about 10 minutes then its ready to go!

My first year at Uni I would always be making this, I never used quorn mince before but I feel like its such a better alternative, for the same amount as lean beef mince (for the fridge) you save £2, you therefore have no rush to use it. Also, this seems to absorb the flavour a lot better than lean beef. In terms of ‘does it taste different?’, not at all! Maybe if it was on its own but in something like this you don’t taste the mince, its just the tenderness that’s different. Whilst I am personally not a vegetarian I will most certainly be using this to what I previously have been doing.

This all cost under £10 with a few bits leftover for other dishes and with more portions for the freezer so this is definitely worth it if you are on a budget yet want something different.